Smurf Patrol Kills

I went out one evening just over a week ago to do a 6 x 1 mile workout.  I threw in a few strides to warm up the legs and took off at what was supposed to be around lactate threshold to 1/2 marathon pace. I got to the first 1/2 mile marker and saw 3:19 for my split. "Okay, this isn't going to work tonight," I told myself. I loped home feeling defeated.

This type of workout experience has been the norm over these past few months, and I have been so frustrated. Most days I have felt ridiculously tired and not able to get excited about pushing my body even for an easy run.  I did have some weird virus and a crazy immune system inspired rash, but if I'm being honest, this has been going on for a lot longer than a few months.  In the 4-6 weeks before the Grandma's half, I had bad workouts almost exclusively. Go back even farther to my build up to the Olympic Trials, and I had not just bad workouts, but also freak injuries that didn't want to heal.

In thinking about my situation, I wondered if something systemic was wrong. I suspected low iron levels, because this mirrored that depleted feeling I had when I once let my ferritin levels get really low. I tested my iron levels twice in the last 4 months and both times they were higher than they've ever been.  I started wondering about hormones.  I am old, after all, and my estrogen levels are probably starting to drop.  I also had my body fat measured a year ago and found out it was pretty low, like estrogen depleting low. Is it possible that, when my body fat levels get super low, my estrogen levels get low enough to make me feel like a sloth?

There was one way to find out.  Well, one easy way.  I had a prescription for hormone enhancers (the name rhymes with the blog title) that had been sitting around the house since last winter. I had a long discussion with my doctor back then about taking them for their main purpose, killing smurfs, but for some other side benefits like maintaining my iron levels and eliminating the ovarian cysts that plague me. I decided not to take them back then because I was worried about weight gain right before the Trials. That was pretty silly. I consulted her again to get her blessing and started taking them a few weeks ago.

The morning after the workout I described above, I was determined to get back out and try again. I decided to change the workout to a fartlek running 1,4,3,2,1,4,3,2,1,4,3,2 minutes at 3k-10k pace with 1/2 the interval jog between (e.g. 30 seconds after 1 minute). I decided to just go with the flow and truly run by effort.  I didn't want to get discouraged in the first few intervals and give up.  My goal was to complete this one no matter what.

I started the first 1-minute interval and felt fine. I jogged for 30 seconds and launched into the 4 minute, 10k effort interval. I settled into a groove that felt like 10k effort, but I didn't want to look at my watch.  I knew it would read 6:30 pace or something slower. I just wanted to stay relaxed and smooth.  I finally got to a 1/2 mile marker and allowed myself to look at my Garmin.  The pace read 6:00! Holy crap! I felt awesome and this was 6 minute pace!  How could that be? I immediately felt a surge of excitement that lasted throughout the workout.

The rest of the workout was great. The 3k effort (1 minute) intervals were 5:40ish; the 5k effort intervals (2 minute) were low 5:50s; and the 3 and 4 minute intervals (10k effort) averaged 5:58.  I had just run 30 minutes of intervals at sub 6:00 pace.  I know, it's not screaming fast, but compared to how slowly I had been running, this was a small miracle.

The rest of the week went well, up until my long run on Sunday.  I had worked in the yard all day in the heat of the day clearing the jungle of vegetation that had started to obscure the house. I may have forgotten to drink any water the whole time I was out, ~3-4 hours.  Well, you can guess what happened as I tried to maintain a hard steady state pace in the middle of my long run later that night. Muscle cramp smack down in the middle of my hamstring. I hobbled home on it and have been babying it since.    

Despite that avoidable muscle cramp incident, I have felt peppy in all of my runs, my sleep has improved dramatically, my mood is brighter, and my energy level throughout the day has been incredible. I have a feeling that the smurf killers are working.

I just completed my best workout in months. I invented it today and call it the mini progression interval run. I had run this workout differently in the past as a continuous effort.  Every time I ran it, I ended up having to stop multiple times during the workout because I couldn't hold the paces I was running. So, I decided to just nip that problem in the bud by building rests into the workout.  I ran 16+ miles with 4 repeats of a 12 minute progression of 6 minutes at marathon effort, 5 minutes at half marathon effort and 1 minute at 5k effort. I jogged for 3-4 minutes in between each interval. All totaled I averaged 6:22 pace for just under 8 miles. Yay!
 
Here's an update on my training:

Week of 3 September
Total miles: 62
M: 7.5 easy with hill plyometrics
T: AM: 4 miles easy PM: 5.5 miles easy with 1/2 mile at 6:38 (workout fail!)
W: 11 miles with strides then 1,4,3,2,1,4,3,2,1,4,3,2 minute intervals at 3k-10k effort with 1/2 jog rest
Th:  6 miles easy
F: 8 miles easy
Sat: 10 miles moderate with hill plyometrics and 10 increasing effort strides
Sun: 10.3 miles with 3.7 miles at 95% GMP (6:38). Hamstring cramp!  

Week of 10 September
Total miles: 64
M: 6 easy
T: REST--travel day and no time to run:( Probably best to rest the hammie anyway.
W: 11 miles with 10 minutes at lactate threshold effort (no idea what pace) then hill repeats (on treadmill): 1,2,3,4,4,3,2,1  minute @ 5k effort with 1-3 minute jog rest.  Finish with 3 x 200m cutdowns (dodging people on Market Street sidewalks in San Francsico)
Th:  8 miles easy
F: 8.5 miles easy
Sat: 10 miles moderate with hill plyometrics and 10 increasing effort strides
Sun: AM: 16.25 miles with 4 x (6 min marathon, 5 min 1/2 marathon, 1 min 5k effort) with 3-4 minutes jog rest. Finish with 3 x 200m cutdown.  PM: 4 miles easy with 3 min @ 3k effort.      

A Race

I ran a cross country race last week: only the third cross country race of my life. The second one was on the same course last year. This was the first race for me in months, and I really just wanted to relax and enjoy it.  I did not put any pressure on myself and, in fact, had a pretty gnarly week leading up to it because I was completing my annual military tour.  I train with the military out at Travis Air Force Base, and, although what I do is not grueling work (mostly desk work), the days are really long: 11-12 hours including commuting time.   Both training and sleep suffered, and it definitely caught up with me.  I felt horrible all week long and especially horrible when I pushed my body in workouts.

Despite how my body felt, I was determined to do the cross country race.  For one thing, I wanted to score for my team, the Impalas. I also wanted to enjoy a race despite not being ready to race. I have been dealing with lots of performance pressure over the last couple of years and it finally got to the point where I wasn't having any fun running. As a result, my training had become really hit or miss.

To overcome this, I'm trying to put myself in high pressure situations and work through the anxiety, find a way to cope, and face the fear head on. It's not hard to pinpoint fear of failure as a huge issue.  I have an ego. I care about slow race times. But, I have a choice to either use these perceived failures to motivate me to train hard or let them defeat me.

Another problem lately has been that my reliably strong body has been uncharacteristically weak. I haven't been able to push myself and am disappointed most days when I go out to do a workout.

These thoughts run through my mind:
"How can this pace feel so hard?"
"I'm putting in the work but not getting any faster."
"Am I just washed up?"
"Do I enjoy running enough to keep at this?"

This last question is one that I assume not a lot of runners ask themselves. I imagine most of you started running and continue because you love it.  For me, I never loved running. I started running because it was a challenge and then because I was good at it.  It has been one of the best examples in my life where putting in hard work led to fairly quick, tangible and impressive results. I have found many other aspects of the sport to love, and believe I have cleared the hump in my love/hate relationship over towards the love side. In the back of my mind, I have always wondered what I would do, how I would feel, when the improvement curve took a nose dive.  Would I still want to train hard? This is the weighty space that my brain has occupied lately.

This cross country race marked a turning point for me. I made it to the starting line.  I kept my fears in check and truly enjoyed the race. I pushed myself hard and kept the negative self talk to a minimum. The experience wasn't all puppies and kittens, though. I struggled with the fact that I was more than a minute slower than last year, and last year I wasn't in particularly great shape. But, that's where I am right now.  I can only build from here.

The thing about having dreams is that they require belief beyond reason sometimes. That's a tough thing for me with my logical mind. I am a scientist after all. I love data, and my data is not indicating fast running any time soon. But, I am also a dreamer and I know that if I don't try, I will never get faster. My daily challenge will be to find the joy that comes from the trying rather than just from the achieving.    

Week at a glance:

Total Miles: 48
Monday: 7 easy
Tuesday: 8 moderate with strides
Wednesday: 10 moderate with 6 x 400m @ goal 5k pace (~88 sec)/1 min. jog rest;  finish with 3 x 200m cut downs; all in the midday heat.  Yuck!
Thursday: 7 miles with push ups, crunches and 1.5 mile fitness test (@ marathon pace; 9:37) followed by 45 minutes of strength training.
Friday: No running.  12 hour work day.
Saturday: 10 total with 5k cross country race in 19:28
Sunday: 6 miles easy

What the Friday?

I set a new PR this month.  Not a running PR, but it was nearly as impressive. I set a PR for the number of welts (200+) my body could fit on my torso (with a small amount of spill over onto my legs).  This nasty weltfest lasted for nearly 4 weeks! The cause of this rash, called Pityriasis rosea (also a PR!), appears to be quite a medical mystery. The prevailing hypothesis calls it an immune system response to a viral infection of some sort since most people report having had some sort of horrible viral infection prior to its onset.

Immediately before the PR onset, I didn't have typical viral symptoms, but I did have a killer toothache. I mean, a jaw-throbbing, headache inducing, face numbing toothache. It lasted for about 10 days. I didn't suspect a virus because I actually do have a bad tooth that I need to pay a lot of money to have fixed. I did try to make an appointment with my dentist when the pain got pretty unbearable, but I never made it to the appointment because the toothache magically disappeared--just as my body started welting up.

My body looked hideous.  Just click on the link above and view some of the pictures. I was one of the lucky ones, however, in that my rash did not itch. Only 25% of those affected have no itching associated with the rash.

Since my body has been fighting its own internal battles over the past 6 weeks, it hasn't had a lot of interest in training hard. I have been training, but I haven't felt 100%.  I did my first 20 miler for my Twin Cities Marathon Prep a few weeks ago, but soon after that realized I needed to ditch that marathon plan and let my body tell me when it wanted to run hard again.

The PR went away a week or more ago, but I still don't feel perfect. I do feel like I'm getting there, though. Always eager to have a new goal, I started a 14-week marathon training program last week, targeting the California International Marathon as my goal race.  I hope this will be enough time to get over this health crisis and get in some good training.

CIM is a great race.  I've run it 5 times but not since 2008, where I had my best marathon experience ever though not my fastest time. In fact, the picture at the top of my blog was taken that day in 2008 at around mile 20, and, yes, I WAS that happy!

I've been thinking about what to do with this blog since I seem to be having a tough time motivating myself to keep it up.  I've decided to do weekly posts with updates on my training. To start things off, here's what I did last week!

Total miles: 63
M: 6 easy with hill plyometrics
T: 10 total with 2 miles of sprint training then 3 x 3,2,1 minute hill repeats @5k effort (equal jog rests) on treadmill (major mental focus required for this!)
W: 8 easy
Th: 8.5 w/10 increasing effort strides then 20 minutes at marathon effort (~6:30)
F: 6 easy with hill plyometrics
Sat: 8 easy
Sun: 16.5 including drills and plyometrics, then 30 minutes at 1/2 marathon effort (~6:25).  Tough day.                              

An Interview

Coach T after a hard workout

Here's a transcript from a recent interview with Jaymee conducted by Coach T.  Those of you who have been around for a while know who she is.  She came onto the scene last year to try to whip Jaymee into shape when Jaymee decided she wanted to turn to Dog as her coach.  Coach T ended up being a bit bossy and seemed more interested in training Jaymee to sprint after small animals than to run a marathon, so the coach-athlete relationship ended, albeit amicably.  We met up with Coach T and Jaymee on the Coast of California…

Coach T:  So, I noticed that you sort of went radio silent there after your last race.  Can you explain to us what happened?

J:  Sure.  I had a pretty tough training cycle leading up to that race.  The workouts I did in the last few weeks were pretty awful.  My legs had no giddy up in them at all.  I wasn't particularly confident going into the race, but I also learned from a very wise woman not to ever count myself out.  I felt as though I'd put in the hard work and something great may happen on race day.  I made some bonehead choices, like thinking it was a good idea to travel for work to Orlando, FL 5 days before the race, sleep less than 5 hours a night race week and then spend 12 hours traveling to Duluth two days before the race.  I was just flat on race day, and my little legs didn't want to go very fast.  I do not regret making the trip to run in the Half Marathon Championships as part of Grandma's Marathon.  The race was amazing and the support was really top notch.  I hope to travel back that way again for the full marathon at some point.  When I got home, I realized I was pretty burned out.  It is mentally tough to train really hard for a race and then have a subpar result.  I just wanted to give myself a break, which included a break from telling my running stories.

Coach T:  Fair enough.  So, did you come in last place?

J:  Harsh, Coach T.  No.  I did not come in last place this time.  I was at the back of the pack for sure, but not last.  (Proof here).

Coach T: So, what have you been doing since the race.  You said that you are taking a break?  Are you running at all?

J: I mentioned before the race in this post that I felt like I was putting too much pressure on myself and running was starting to become unfun.  I realized after the race that I actually had a fair amount of anxiety associated with my running, and I needed to figure out a way to get past that.  I was having trouble even getting motivated to just go out for an easy run.  I did what all good type As do and tried to power through those thoughts and feelings at first, thinking that if I just set a new goal and developed a training plan, I would muster the motivation to start anew.  That approach flopped as you could probably easily predict it would.  My first workout of this new training cycle was just as angst-ridden as any I had done in the last training cycle despite my newfound desire to keep my running all Zen-like and flowy.  It took me about a week to realize that I needed a mental break.  I talked with Coach L about this, and he said it was a very smart idea.  So, for the past two weeks, I've let myself just do whatever I wanted.  I ran when I wanted to run and I didn't run when I didn't want to run.  It has worked wonders.  Just giving myself that mental break has breathed some life back into me.

Coach T: Does that mean you have new goals?

J: I actually set a race goal before I decided to take this break.  I thought it would be fun to run the Masters Marathon Championship race at the Twin Cities Marathon in October.  I ran this race in 2009 and really enjoyed it.  It's a good course for me, and I loved the race hospitality.  I actually developed a training plan with Coach L right before my training implosion.  Despite the beauty of the plan, I just couldn't get excited about gearing up again for a big training push.  Over the last two weeks, I've started to feel much better about running and more motivated to train.  I've had 3 weeks of low mileage and am building back up.  I have taken the time to do a lot of thinking about my running and a bit of troubleshooting about why I felt so flat in the last training cycle.  I've started experimenting with some of the elements of my training that helped me become a strong marathoner in the first place.  This is stuff I once complained about doing, but I find myself oddly looking forward to:  stuff like plyometric hill drills and a suite of variations on strides.  I hypothesize that these activities will help me get the pop back in my legs, and I actually think it's working.  I think I'll try different types of workouts and do everything effort-based at this point so I don't pressure myself into trying to hold a certain pace.  I don't have to pull the trigger on Twin Cities until the end of August, so I have time to see how far I get in these next few weeks.

Coach T: I like your approach.  I personally think you should be doing more squirrel sprints and digging exercises, but those are the things I love.  If you like hopping on one leg up a hill over and over, then knock yourself out.

J:  I think we're on the same page, Coach T.  Do what you love; love what you do.

Coach T: Okay, that might be a little too touchy-feely for my tastes.  So, you're getting pretty old aren't you?  I understand you turn 45 soon?

J: That's right, Coach T.  I'll be in a new age group.  I'm excited about what I'll do with the rest of my 40s.  I never would have guessed that I would have accomplished what I did in my early 40s.  I have many great female masters runners to look to for inspiration--some of them are still setting PRs well into their 40s.  This past year, I feel like I've been on an accelerated learning track with running.  I had some crazy ass shit happen, but I met some of the most amazing people too and learned an awful lot about myself.  It was a year of growth for sure.

Coach T: It has been fun chatting with you here in beautiful Cali, but I have to go do some beach running and eat some crab shells with my boy, Püddle.  Hasta, chica.

Jinx

Right on cue, my last post was looking like it had actually jinxed me for my upcoming race.  I wrote about the hamstring soreness I developed doing some new eccentric hamstring exercises added in to my strength routine.  That soreness came after the first day of strength training.  I did the second day of strength training a few days later.  These exercises isolated the hamstring even more.  My hamstring muscles actually cramped up during the exercises so I could not complete them with good form.  Lesson #1: muscle cramping is not a desired state during strength training and is likely a sign that bad things are happening to the muscle.

I was almost immobile the next few days from these exercises, and I was in my highest mileage training week.  I consulted my strength coach and he backed off of the hamstring work.  Rather than back off my running, I decided to continue to get my mileage in.  The hamstring cramping was pretty awful when I ran.  It concerned me--not because of the pain, but because my hamstrings were so tight and inflexible that my gait was really jacked up.  I knew it, and I actually predicted that it would lead to problems elsewhere in my body.  I was right.

The next week, the hamstrings loosened up a bit, but my calf muscles were overworked from running with jacked up gait.  My achilles and arches on both feet were screaming at me with every step.  This is exactly what I predicted I would feel.  Instead of backing off from my running, however, I had this weird response.  I justified continuing to run because I could explain why this happened.  Somehow, I rationalized I didn't need to worry about doing further damage because cause and effect were so clear.

Doesn't sound very smart does it?  Well, lucky for me, it all worked out fine.  My miracle body worker, Jen, was able to get the kinks out of those tendons and muscles so I was able to continue to get my mileage in.  I did miss one workout as a result of this, though.  Jen was the one who pointed out Lesson #2 to me: don't add in new stuff in the middle of high mileage training.  Your body has enough to deal with in recovering from the running alone.

These last couple of weeks were a stark contrast to the happy running weeks I wrote about last time.  I was running in pain again and in fear of developing another injury.  Plus, I was starting to feel the fatigue of high mileage with double runs almost every day, strength training and flexibility exercises 2x per week.  I still don't know how I fit it all in.  This took a toll on me both mentally and physically, culminating in a fantastic breakdown during an important workout this last weekend.

I had 14 miles with the middle 10 at a hard effort.  My hope was to run that middle 10 as close to goal half marathon pace as possible.  My achilles were barely sore and the hamstrings were feeling okay.  I had missed a hard workout midweek of that week (due to the achilles), so I only had fairly easy miles on my legs.  I was running 10 less miles that week as well (80 rather than 90), so I thought I was going to feel like a superstar.  I started out at a little slower than goal pace for the first 2 miles and it started to become a struggle to hold.  I slowed a little and just tried to maintain the effort.  I was continuing to slow and it seemed like my legs were stuck in molasses.  My breathing was not labored at all, but my legs--damn my legs!  I stopped at the 5 mile point to get a drink of water and had a minor meltdown.  The pity party was not pretty as I cried, bemoaning all the time I had put in to my training to only be able to run 20-25 seconds slower than goal pace.  What was wrong with me?  I should feel so good!  Why do I suck so much?!

Lucky for me, a friend saw me on the side of the trail and stopped to talk.  It forced me to take down the banners for my fun little party and get my slow butt moving again to finish the workout.  Normally, I would have been proud of myself for finishing, but I just didn't have any pride left at the end of this one.  I was a beast for the rest of the weekend.

I tried to dissect all the things that could have caused this shit workout, but in the end, I just had a bunch of possible reasons and nothing I could really do anything about.  So, some wise words from my coach and my friend T-meat helped me to see I needed to have faith in the hard work I had already put in.  I hadn't lost fitness over the 4 weeks since I last did this workout.  I was just having a bad day.

Last night, I had my last hard workout of this cycle and was super anxious about whether I would have a repeat poor performance.  The workout was 6 x 800m with a 400m jog rest.  I decided during my warm up that I would do the workout no matter what and that I would do it by effort.  If that effort equated to 6:00 pace, then that's all I could do.  The workout was awesome.  I felt so light and fast AND RELIEVED!

I did not look at my watch at all for the first repeat until I crossed the line: 2:43!  I was stunned because that was much faster than I expected.  I jogged for a quarter mile, starting to feel pretty pumped about the next 5 repeats.  I started my watch and ran to the next marker: 2:40!  Holy cow!  I have never run an 800 that fast!  The third repeat, I was still pushing 5:20 pace and my legs started to sieze as I approached the finish: 2:43.  I had to back off the last 3 in order to complete the workout, but I paced them like clockwork: 2:45, 2:45, 2:45.  This was easily the fastest set of 800s I have done.  I was so happy, you can't even imagine.

With renewed confidence in my fitness, I was able to do a little soul searching today.  I realized that I put a ton of pressure on myself to achieve my ambitious, sometimes unreasonable, expectations and that is not the healthiest thing.  I honestly think that this internal pressure is what has made me successful in running (and probably in many aspects of my life in general), but it comes at a cost.  That cost is increased stress and will lead to burn out if I don't temper it.  So, that's my challenge for my next chapter in training: to figure out how to diffuse that pressure and keep my running life light and positive.

I have a little over one week to go until Grandma's!  I've put in the hard work and am excited to see what the day gives me.  More than anything, it feels great to have been able to put in the hard work this training cycle and to feel confident in that.  Go hard or go home!    

And...100

And just like that, I've hit my peak mileage for this training cycle.  It seems a little hard to believe that I ran 100 miles this week.  I feel pretty great, too.  No aches or pains: only some ridiculously sore hamstrings from my new strength program (thanks, Tim, for adding the Russian dead lifts and good mornings-ouch!).  From here, my running volume tapers for the half marathon on June 16th.  Looking back at my running logs, I realized that these last 3 weeks are on par with the highest mileage I've ever run--and that was for marathon training.  With another 90 mile week next week, I'll break my mileage record.      

After a few weeks of plateauing, I finally had some breakthrough workouts these last two weeks.  I ran my fastest set of 400s ever a couple of weeks ago, almost broke 24:00 for my 4 mile tempo (something I've never done before in a workout), and I've done two, 14 milers with the middle 10 miles "hard".  Hard has equated to right around 6:20 pace.  I've done almost all of these workouts in the heat.  I'm not doing that intentionally, but that's just how the schedule has worked out.  While it sucks to run hard in the heat, I'm betting on hot weather for Grandma's this year (though my race starts at 6:25 a.m.!).  At least I'll be acclimated. 

I've also had some not-so-great workouts.  Earlier this week, I set out to do mile repeats one evening when I had been feeling like poo for several days due to wicked allergies and a bad case of ovarian cysts.  I started the first repeat and knew by the 1/2 mile marker I was not going to finish the workout.  I stopped and collected myself a bit and tried another mile.  It felt awful, so I decided I would just get the miles in and call it a day.  If you're a long-time follower, you know that I typically get in every workout in a training cycle.  Some are better than others, but I rarely have to skip one.  So, this was a major bummer for me.  Coach L said to just let it go and "don't stress about it!"  This week was about getting in the volume, but I was also able to get in one of those hard 14 milers last night.

After I had run that fast 400m workout, Coach L gave me some sage advice.  He told me to remember the feeling I had during and after that workout.  It's easy to find something positive in a workout like that, but he said to try to have that feeling after every workout.  Find something positive about each workout and DWELL ON IT.  That is an amazing piece of advice, particularly for someone like me who would be predisposed to dwell on what went wrong in a workout.        

I've also pulled out my Mind Training for Runners MP3 and started listening to it.  The download has a guided imagery track and a track that you play at night with subliminal messages embedded to make you fearless.  Well, I always wake up wearing socks on my hands and ski goggles after listening to it, so maybe it's channeling some other message.  Anyway, using these two tracks really helped me in Chicago, and I know they will help me at Grandma's too.

I get asked a lot by my colleagues whether I am running right now.  Most of them tracked my long injury saga last winter and find it hard to believe that I'm training as hard as I am without any pain.  I think I've struck a good balance between strength work, dynamic flexibility and massage this training cycle.  My strength program is designed to work with my running training and is tapering right along with my running.  My body has definitely changed shape over the last 2-3 months.  My legs look like tree trunks to me, though I know they really aren't.  I have my football player shoulders back.  Pretty swoll in general, but I'm okay with that.

Jen Walker at CMT Sports Therapy has been a major player in keeping me running healthy.  I see her once every two weeks.  She not only gives me a good tune up, but also gives me a status report on the state of my muscles.  A couple of weeks ago, my right hamstring was starting to feel "ropey" though I wasn't feeling any real pain from it.  That cleared up with some work by her and extra rolling on my part.  During this last week's visit, she gave me a thumbs up. She said that while my muscles were tight, they were healthy, and I had good bilateral mobility.

I have also continued to do the hip mobility exercises that John Ball gave me back in January.  I do these 2-3 times per week, and they are key!  They only take 10 minutes to do, and I always feel a million times more mobile after doing them.

I feel as though I should knock on wood right now because I've had a history of jinxing myself with posts like this.  I know I'm doing everything I can to stay healthy and strong.  A little voice in the back of my mind (John Ball) is always there whispering that you can do everything right and still get injured.  I choose not to listen to that voice.

When negative is positive

Well, hello there.  It's been quite a long time since I've posted.  Sorry for being out of touch.  Rest assured, everything in my running world has been bouncing along nicely.  In fact, it's been relatively boring, but I am very grateful for that.  I mentioned how chaotic my work life has been a few posts ago and that hasn't changed much.  However, Heather gave me some sage advice that has really worked.  She told me to look to the things in my life that are positive as a way to drown out the negative din.

Running has been a great way for me to focus my energy on something constructive that is under my control. Being able to run without concern for injury has made it even more perfect.  I have bumped my way up to 85 miles per week by slowly adding miles each week for the last 11 weeks. I will continue to scoot up, 5 miles/week, to see how I handle it.  Once I hit 100, I think I'll level off for a couple of weeks, but that's only 3 weeks away!

I came down in mileage last week for a race.  What what?  Yep, I ran a race: my first 5k in seven months.  It was a great opportunity to test out some of Coach L's mental exercises and focus on a fast finish.  Every workout I do is meant to be run as a negative split to program my body/brain to get faster throughout the race.  I didn't have a time goal, but I did want to finish hard the last mile.  I have never negative split a 5k before and was determined to do so.  One way to do that is to sand bag the first half, but that doesn't really count.  I wasn't sure how to split the race since I knew the course had some good hills.

I ran 18:25 (by my watch) and my splits were 5:58, 6:06 (hilly mile), 5:45, :36.  I was so pleased with that third mile and how focused I was able to remain through quite a bit of pain.  The pain was coming from my hip flexor muscles.  This was a "good pain" in that I knew it was muscle fatigue and not injury.  Holy guacamole were they screaming!

Look at those screaming muscles!

Confession time. Post race, I confessed to my coaches that I hadn't followed their pre-race instructions (do no strength work after Thursday) because my schedule didn't allow.  On Friday, I had to make a choice: do I forgo strength training for the entire week (I hadn't done any earlier in the week) or do I get it done and live with the consequences in the race?  I decided that the strength work was more important to me.  However, I did learn a valuable lesson in how much 24 reps of 100-lb squats + lunges + core work + Bulgarian squats + what not, can dull your legs for a fast race or workout.  Strength Coach Tim asked me if I'm the type of person who always has to learn the hard way.  I told him I am not.  I knew the likely outcome of my choice, but I chose being strong over being fast.      

To that point--I am convinced that the main reason my body is handling higher mileage so well this time around is due to this strength program.  I have been building in that program too, adding weight and decreasing reps to really build muscle.  I just went over the 100 lb mark for my squat (front and back) repetitions and look forward to the day I am doing my reps using my own body weight.  I like the mental image of me doing squat reps with myself on my shoulders.

Like most distance runners, I have been concerned that my body weight would also increase as a result of packing on more muscles.  I am proof positive that this doesn't have to happen.  I'm now at the same low weight as last October when I was running good mileage but doing zero strength training.  My arms were puny back then though my legs were still muscular.  My body fat is a little higher now than it was back then, so I actually have room to lose a bit more.

Riffing on the subject of body fat. I was really concerned about having levels that were too low after getting hydrostatic tested last fall.  Yes, I know that there is error associated with this measure, but I was still damn low adding on the highest standard error estimate associated with this method. That actually bothered me for months because everything I read said that my levels were so low that my body shouldn't be functioning.  In fact, I worried that the injuries I was experiencing in November/December were due to low body fat.  I was trying to figure out a way to gain body fat while continuing to exercise: not because I was experiencing any symptoms of low BF, but because I fell outside the *normal* range for ladies.  Simply eating more doesn't work since exercise converts the excess calories to muscle rather than fat.  The only way to store more body fat is to eat more AND stop exercising.  I proved that when I was injured: my body fat popped right back up.

I did a lot of asking around about this issue and what finally convinced me to abandon my quest for higher body fat was a convo with Dr. Ball.  I told him about my dilemma and he said, "you didn't get injured because you had low body fat.  You got injured because you were doing stupid shit with your training.  You don't need more body fat."  He was right.  My body fat levels are low but fine.  I'm a muscular girl and will always weigh more than most distance runners. I'll probably have lower body fat than most of them too.  That's how I'm built: like a Swiss tank.

I am a runner/singer.  Music is another hobby that has helped me cope with the rocks at work lately, but it has always been a calming activity for me.  My Mom used to tell people that she knew I was dealing with problems as a child when I would lock myself in my room and saw away at my cello for hours. I would emerge a different child.  I feel lucky to be able to rely on music for this.

Setting the goal and qualifying for the Olympic Trials in my late thirties has made me think:  well, WTF?  What other crazy things should I try to do?  Two weeks ago, I submitted an audition video to The Voice!  Chances are it won't even be watched, but the process of choosing songs, practicing, recording and telling my story, was super fun.  Plus, I have this video to show for my hard work (YouTube link here if you can't play the embedded version)!  Enjoy!